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 Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2026 8:16 pm
Quote: Room 2: The Archives - Towering tapestries stretched from floor to ceiling, their threads impossibly vibrant despite their apparent age. Each depicted civilizations unlike any found on Earth. Some showed familiar constellations above unfamiliar landscapes; others portrayed cities suspended beneath oceans of stars, or kingdoms ruled beneath enormous crystal moons. No two scenes appeared to belong to the same world, yet together they felt like fragments of an impossibly vast shared history. Toward the back of the gallery, the mood shifted. The woven scenes became darker. Figures that appeared wholly ordinary slowly transformed from panel to panel into twisted, monstrous shapes beneath the shadow of an immense crowned being whose face had long since faded from the fabric. Nearby rested ceremonial masks, broken staffs, and a blackened crown from unknown worlds. None were labeled, and they seemed a little out of place despite being paired with the tapestry. Whether they commemorated myth, history, or something in between was left entirely unanswered. One thing was certain: the universe has always had monsters. And someone had made them.
Lyon stood before one of the enormous tapestries, squinting towards the top as if he’d be able to make out what was up there any better than anything that was eye level. There were animals he didn’t recognize, and plants, and symbols, and even the people didn’t look like people.
He wasn’t much of a connoisseur of art, but he understood it was supposed to be subjective anyway.
He just had no idea what he was supposed to be seeing, or feeling, while looking at this one.
“Hey, Effie.” He tilted his head, looking over his shoulder. Amarynthos and Ephesus were just behind him, looking at another display. “You do art stuff. How long do you think this would take someone to do?”
It didn’t matter if this wasn’t the sort of art Atticus was known for; Lyon just decided Ephesus must be the most knowledgeable about it anyway. After all, how many people had fathers who had an art gallery?
…Also, a different kind of art, but Lyon wasn’t splitting hairs.
Amarynthos swung Ephesus’s hand while they looked at a smaller tapestry, though theirs depicted a crystal city with beautiful stars mapped out above them. The thread glittered, like crystal had been woven into the silver thread. They’d been trying to identify the constellations.
Dering, while still within the general perimeter of the group, stayed somewhat on the outskirts of their circle. He’d gravitated towards a smaller tapestry, with a single cracked crystal moon above a dark forest. The silhouette of forest creatures barely stood out against the dark threads shaped into trees, but he thought he could make out the shape of a unicorn–or, maybe that’s just where his thoughts were fixated. He was in a bit of a dreary mood, not as mousy as he tended to be, but more resigned. It didn’t stop him from keeping a little smile on his face, but he didn’t try to hide the confusion as he tried to make sense of the tapestry.
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2026 8:18 am
The hunting lodge at his wonder had its own tapestries, once tattered and faded and prone to falling apart at a touch. Hearing Lyon's question and thinking of having to take up weaving to restore them, he was doubly grateful that over time they'd gradually mended and brightened on their own until they looked, if not new, at least whole. Like they might have looked right before... He sighed. It was hard not to consider the past that was lost in a place like this, and the future lost alongside it. Like thinking og the Library of Alexandria, but thousands of times over. Sad, strange, but also... very cool to even get a glimpse like this. The weirder, more uncanny valley images were a lot more comfortable on the heart, though. "I wonder if the Voynich Manuscript was really from one of these..." Halle trailed off as he wandered near Dering and saw what he was looking at. "Oh, huh." The tapestry was lovely and a little haunted, and Dering next to it suited the scene quite well. "Do you think it's from Lysithea?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2026 7:25 pm
Ephesus had been so absorbed in the tapestry that Lyon's question took him a second to register.
"Hm?" He blinked, then looked over with a sheepish smile before turning back toward the enormous weaving. His free hand lifted instinctively, though he stopped himself well before touching the fabric. He wasn't about to be the person who damaged something so old.
"I… don't really know," he admitted. His eyes wandered over the countless threads again, following the subtle shifts in color where shadows and light had been worked into the scene. "I can crochet a little, and knit, and I've done some needlepoint," he said. "Nothing like this, though."
His smile grew thoughtful as he squeezed Amarynthos's hand, just a little reminder that he was there with him. As though needing a reality check that this was real.
"This is… really incredible."
He leaned in just enough to study how the threads layered together, his fingers unconsciously mimicking the motion of stitching against Amarynthos's hand.
"It depends on how they made it," he continued. "If they had a really big loom, it'd be faster, but…" He shook his head. "Even then, something this detailed? This big?" He glanced from one end of the tapestry to the other, clearly trying to estimate it. "I'd think at least a year. Maybe longer if it was mostly done by hand."
He laughed softly. "And that's assuming whoever made it could work on it every day."
The thought settled over him for a moment, replacing the initial awe with something quieter. "Someone spent that much time making sure people would remember this."
His gaze drifted toward the darker tapestries further back. There, ordinary figures slowly unraveled into monstrous forms beneath the faded image of the crowned figure.
"...Even this part," he murmured, a little more subdued now. "Whatever happened… they wanted someone to remember it." And hopefully it was just myth and not actual history, but given everything they'd already experienced…
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2026 7:25 pm
By the time Reims found the others again, the knot that had settled in his chest had loosened just a little.
Yvoire was home.
The message they'd sent each other through their signet rings had been short, but it was enough. Safe. Back on Earth. That was all Reims had needed to hear before turning around and retracing his steps through the museum.
He spotted the others gathered around a massive tapestry and slowed as he approached, his shoulders relaxing a little when he saw Atticus already explaining something to Lyon with the sort of enthusiasm only Atticus could manage.
Good. They deserved a chance to enjoy this.
Reims didn't interrupt. Instead, he settled a few steps away from the group, close enough that they could call him over if they needed him, but far enough that he could keep an eye on the room instead of the artwork.
His gaze drifted from display to display without lingering. Beautiful, sure, but he couldn't make heads or tails of half of it. Strange cities. Strange stars. Strange histories that belonged to people he'd never know.
The people beside him made a lot more sense, and were more important to him by far.
He caught Halle wandering over toward Dering, heard something about Lysithea, and glanced over just long enough to see the pair studying one of the darker tapestries together. Julian looked thoughtful more than worried, and Halle seemed content to wonder out loud. Satisfied that they were okay, Reims let his attention drift away again.
He let the others admire the tapestries while his attention wandered toward the entrances, then to the scattered visitors filtering through the gallery. Every so often his eyes caught on a familiar uniform, just long enough to make sure it kept moving.
No one seemed interested in them. He intended to keep it that way.
His hand twitched like he was ready to call his sword at any moment. Not because he was looking for a fight — he knew the rules Almadel put in place. But there hadn't been any rules about acting in self defense.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2026 2:17 am
“Oh,” Dering said, like it was a greeting. Whatever thoughts had tangled in his head unknotted themselves, and he tore his gaze from the tapestry to smile at Halle briefly before focusing on the tapestry again.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, which was so much easier than actually producing an actual thought. But, he caught himself quickly, before so much time passed that the silence became awkward, and added, “I always think of Lysithea when I see unicorns.”
The silhouette was at least close enough to one that he didn’t think it was too great of a leap, but he’d have been lying if he said he didn’t have unicorns on his mind already.
“I haven’t seen much artwork from Lysithea.” Next to nothing from his own Wonder, but Stirling had a castle, and Lysithea had shown him some, too. “But, um. It’s not usually this dark, I don’t think. So maybe not.”
Or maybe there were dark parts of Lysithea.
“What was the Voy–um, the manuscript?”
-
Lyon nodded along as he listened. He could make out what Halle said, but Dering was too quiet, and if it weren't for Ephesus’s enthusiasm, he might have been hard to hear, too.
But then, Reims returned.
He, Amarynthos, and Dering all glanced in his direction. Dering offered a quick smile, Mary nodded, and Lyon waited to see if he’d come closer–and when he didn’t, just walked over, hooked arms, and dragged him closer to the group.
“Relax,” he huffed. If something had gone wrong, they’d have already heard about it, so he supposed Reims was just being shy. Or anticipating danger where there probably wasn’t going to be any.
“Ephesus was just telling us about how it probably took at least a year to make each of these tapestries. But probably longer. I can’t imagine, who has time for that?”
Artists with no love life. He glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the way Ephesus and Amarynthos were always joined somewhere. At least right now it was hands and not lips.
Well, maybe just artists with rich parents.
“I wish I understood it all a little better. Some of this is, hm.” Ephesus was looking at one of the more ominous displays, so he looked, too. “Abstract.”
-
Amarynthos had been eying the artifacts in the back, not quite with dread but not with enthusiasm, either. It felt like walking into a room where you knew something bad was waiting. It was easy to brace for, but nothing ever came, so the unease never settled.
He understood why Reims seemed so on edge–if not because of the company they arrived with, but because there was something ominous about the place itself. Or, the things in it.
Ephesus was an emotional sponge, and Reims too, but it manifested very differently in each of them. Though there was something uneasy, he just relaxed his shoulders and took an easy posture, adjusting so he could rest his chin on Ephesus’s shoulder while looking at the artwork with him.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2026 8:33 am
"Same," Halle admitted, "...it makes it kinda awkward when I go into stores sometimes. They're uh, pretty popular and all that." But it was a grimmer mood. The next tapestries even moreso. "Maybe they weren't, or maybe it was near the end of it all. I've never asked her about it." He pretty much only ever had unhappy things to talk about when he talked to Lysithea, and rarely felt up to adding to that list. He was still kinda curious, though. If maybe this end of the hangings were tied together, depicting different corners of space as everything began to go wrong, falling into decline and destruction. As a theme, it'd make sense. "Oh, it's this weird manuscript found hundreds of years ago," Halle couldn't help grinning at the other knight, eyes bright both for the topic and also for the possibility that it was something from space, "...and nobody can figure it out. Not the language, or the plants and animals illustrated in it. Not even the star charts. Glancing over, he saw Reims had returned to the group and was giving his full Constant Vigilance. It was probably a good idea, but Halle kind of hated that they couldn't relax their guard. Here or on Earth, only the moon and their wonders were really safe to them. But with Reims acting lookout, they could at least relax a little. Enough to enjoy the museum a bit, and potentially learn more about what had once resided out in space. Giving his head a little shake to knock away some of the morose thought, Halle flipped to a new page of his notebook and scribbled down a description and rough thumbnail of the Possibly A Unicorn tapestry.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2026 12:15 pm
Ephesus melted the second Amarynthos rested against him.
His smile returned almost immediately, softer this time, and without thinking he slipped free of Amarynthos's hand only so he could guide both of his boyfriend's arms around his waist instead. It felt better that way. Safer. He leaned back until their cheeks brushed together, one hand lifting to cup Amarynthos's face while he absentmindedly stroked his fingertips along his cheekbone.
He knew they should probably be more discreet… But if someone hadn't figured it out by now, they probably weren't paying very close attention to begin with. Besides, with his dads nearby and Amarynthos warm against his back, it was hard to remember there was any reason to be afraid.
His gaze drifted from the tapestry to the collection of unlabeled artifacts nearby, curiosity gradually replacing the heaviness that had settled over him.
"I kind of wish we knew where these came from," he admitted quietly. "Or… who made them."
There were thousands of stories woven into the room, and somehow none of them had names attached.
"...Maybe we could ask Almadel?" he suggested after a moment, looking between the tapestries again. "If he collected them, maybe he knows where they came from. Or who made them." His smile returned then, thoughtful and a little hopeful. "I'd really like to know what they were trying to say."
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2026 12:20 pm
Reims barely had time to realize Lyon was heading his way before an arm hooked through his own and tugged him back toward the group.
"Wha— Lyon…"
He stumbled the extra step with a look that suggested that dragging him over had been entirely unnecessary, his ears warming despite himself.
"I'm relaxed," he mumbled an automated response, though his eyes had already swept the room again before settling back on the others. Although he looked a little embarrassed to have been caught standing watch so obviously.
"I just figured someone should be paying attention," he admitted. It wasn't that he thought the others couldn't protect themselves. He just… knew how quickly things could go wrong.
At Lyon's gesture toward the tapestries, Reims looked at the darker panels for a moment before giving a small shrug.
"I don't really get it either," he confessed. "Looks important… just not the kind of thing I'm good at figuring out. As long as these aren't foretelling another of those world eating snakes coming to destroy Earth…" He let out a quiet huff, but hopefully the others would know he was mostly joking.
His gaze wandered toward the entrance again almost instinctively before returning to the group. "I'm happy letting everyone else enjoy the exhibits. Although I guess it's easier to keep an eye on everything from here, anyway…"
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 7:39 am
Dering nodded as he listened to Halle, and briefly glanced down at his notebook before he quickly looked away.
“Oh, that’s neat.” Dering’s enthusiasm was subdued, but honest, and he seemed to be thinking deeply about it for a good few seconds before he said, “I’ll have to look it up.”
But it wasn’t the only thought ruminating in his head, and he shifted his weight once while mulling over the rest of it. He didn’t really talk to Lysithea about anything too morose, but that also included digging too deeply into any memories of her past life.
Although, he had questions. A lot of them.
Mostly, he just kept them to himself, but–
“Do you have any on your Wonder?” he asked, inclining his head just slightly towards Halle while keeping his eyes fixed to the same tapestry. “Um, unicorns, I mean.”
-
“There’s no harm in asking him,” Amarynthos hummed. “He said he’d be around. I wanted to check out the gift shop anyway.” Of course, there was no guaranteeing how busy he’d be with everyone else, but Amarynthos was optimistic.
“Too bad he only invites us up here when there are bugs or a full house. I’d love to pick his brain.”
They might only have a few hours here tonight–less if something went wrong–so it felt like they had to cram as much into the evening as they could.
…Which meant he should probably be a little more productive.
With a little sigh, but not much movement, Amarynthos pulled his camera out of subspace.
If Almadel didn’t want them taking pictures, there should have been a sign posted in English saying ‘no photography’, but Amarynthos was prepared to play innocent if he got caught.
“I’m gonna take some pictures, so if there’s anything you want, let me know,” he said to the group, even if he had full intention of photographing everything and sending it out to them. Although, this close to Ephesus, and camera in hand, he couldn’t help but stretch out his arm to snap a selfie of them first.
-
Lyon side-eyed Reims, who he definitely knew had not been relaxed, and who remained unrelaxed. He didn’t release his arm, but didn’t hold it with an unbreakable grip.
“You can keep watch from here, can’t you? You don’t have to guard the door. Besides, we’ll be safer if you’re closer to us. Doesn’t this stuff interest you at all? …Or is it so boring that you’re actually just trying to get out of standing around and looking at old art?”
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 11:09 am
"It's pretty fun," Halle encouraged, and, noting the other's distracted gaze added, "I'll send you some links later." Because it really was cool, though also, this whole museum seemed full of things just as, if not more, interesting and maybe pertinent to them as knights. "Like, living ones? Nah..." his voice trailed off and he gave a his chin a few taps with the pen. "But maybe something will show up soon. My wonder's gotten well, lively lately." Berries started showing up in the spring, along with mushrooms, and something that might be apple-adjacent was starting to fruit on certain trees. And with those changes, came new insects and animals. It felt more like a real place, rather than something running on pure magic. "What about at Dering?" What was Daring's wonder like? Halle to admit, in his focus on his own forest, he hadn't spared much interest or attention other knight wonders, even the ones on Lysithea. Turning his head at Mary's call, he grinned and offered a thumb's up, "Smart! I want everything." The grin widened as he noticed that Reims had been manhandled closer to the group. Stalwart and courageous against chaos and, apparently, giant space bugs, but the guy really had no resistance to blondes.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 7:27 pm
Ephesus laughed softly as Amarynthos pulled the camera from subspace, instinctively lifting both hands beneath it. It wasn't that he thought Amarynthos would drop it, but trying to hold a camera with one hand while wrapped around someone else seemed like a pretty high risk.
"I'll catch it if you drop it," he explained with a sheepish smile, fingers hovering beneath it just in case.
He brightened at the mention of the gift shop.
"I'd like to go too," he admitted. "Maybe after we've talked to Almadel, if we can catch him when he's not being crowded."
There were already a dozen questions swirling around in his head, and he had the feeling each answer would only lead to a dozen more.
The camera lifted, and Ephesus couldn't help the little giggle that escaped him. He leaned into Amarynthos without hesitation, smiling warmly toward the lens before giving in to impulse and pressed a quick kiss against his boyfriend's cheek just as the picture was taken.
"There," he said, pleased with himself before glancing back toward the tapestry.
"...Actually…" His expression shifted to something thoughtful again. "Could you get a close up of some of the stitching? Especially where the colors blend together." He gestured toward one of the sections where the threads shifted almost seamlessly from shadow into light. "I'd love to look at it more closely later. I don't think I'll ever make something like this, but…" His smile returned. "I'd still like to understand how someone did."
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 7:33 pm
Reims bristled immediately at Lyon's questions.
"Yeah," he snapped with a dismissive shrug that came much too quickly. "It's boring. Just… old stuff." He nodded vaguely toward the towering tapestries without really looking at them. "Half of it's probably stories anyway. Legends people made up because they didn't know any better."
Even as he said it, his eyes betrayed him, drifting almost involuntarily toward the faded crowned figure looming over the darker panels.
His stomach tightened. He'd seen too many things that should have been stories. Too many monsters that weren't just myths.
Reims looked away before he lingered long enough for anyone not paying close attention could notice.
"Besides," he continued, clearing his throat as if the pause had never happened, "Yvoire was uncomfortable enough that he wanted to leave. Someone should be paying attention."
His shoulders lifted in a small shrug that was more awkward than dismissive this time.
"If I'm wrong… great." He glanced toward the entrance again. "Then everyone gets to enjoy looking at old, boring tapestries while I waste an evening standing guard."
He seemed perfectly content with that arrangement.
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2026 3:46 am
“Oh, thank you,” Dering said, grateful for the links. He rarely spent much time on the internet, and it was far preferable to him to have the resources available than to have to go dig them up.
So, that was the easiest part of the conversation.
The rest, not so much.
Which was remarkably silly, given what a simple question it was.
What was at Dering?
It was only after Halle answered Amarynthos that Dering even had anything to say, and it felt like he was speaking outside of the window he’d been given. “Dering is, um, it’s lively. It’s complicated.”
There was a lot going on, and a lot he was still figuring out.
His answer was probably underwhelming, so he flashed a quick, apologetic smile.
“But I’d like to hear more about Halle sometime. If you’d like to talk about it.”
-
Amarynthos, though sufficiently distracted by Ephesus, gave Halle a thumbs up, and started carefully cataloging everything.
Naturally, he enjoyed any excuse to be close to Ephesus, and he’d always been comfortable enough to express that affection around his friends. It happened so often than it was expected of them, and was mostly just accepted.
“Got it,” he promised, kissing Effie’s cheek once more before diligently beginning his cataloging. There was a lot to work through, between this room and the others, but he was determined to get to all of it.
-
“So? What’s wrong with made up stories?” Lyon asked, following Reims’s gaze. He was so easy to read, and would have been even if Lyon couldn’t feel the way he’d tensed.
He let out a long, exasperated sigh. “I mean, if you’d really rather go play guard, I’ll stop dragging you around.”
Reluctantly, maybe dramatically, he untangled from Reims and instead crossed his arms across his chest, as if that was any substitute for being tangled around him.
The room felt colder, and more ominous, but Lyon wasn’t one to be frightened off by something unnerving, so he made his way towards the eerie display Reims had been eyeing.
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2026 5:08 pm
Complicated. That could mean a lot of things when it came to a Wonder, even one on a world like Lysithea. Could be anything from a fragile ecosystem, or being dominated by poisonous plants, to animatronic unicorns surrounded by human bones and likely to spring to life at any time. "Complicated sounds pretty interesting," Halle admitted. "If you ever want another pair of eyes on the place, sign me up." But that was as far as he pushed. Honestly, from what he knew and had seen of Dering, the other knight wasn't exactly the sort to talk about himself at length, and maybe that extended to his Wonder. "Until then, come hang out at Halle any time. If we plan for a weekend, I can promise a really cool mini-vacation. Its forest is pretty big, the animals are getting way more varied, and the lodge has plenty of rooms that are in good shape now."
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